“I favourite them,” he said after winning his second NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season at Pocono on Sunday.

“So I kind of get off on that. But I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to prove. I have a lot more fun actually kind of reading that stuff on Twitter than I do a typical normal joke.

“Some of the stuff the haters say is the funniest stuff. It’s really funny.”

On a more serious note, Earnhardt said that earlier in his career such criticism might have had more of an impact, but with his 40th birthday on the horizon, he has a whole new perspective on critics who label him as overrated.